Lunch in the Lab

Astronaut Chris Hadfield performs David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in microgravity. Commander Chris Hadfield is a great many things: a photographer, an educator, a social media maven — did I forget to mention astronaut? And it’s with great delight that we … Continue reading →

José Efraín Ríos Montt inside the courtroom where he is being tried for genocide and crimes against humanity. Photo by Xeni Jardin. Update: 2:50 p.m. ET | After seven weeks of testimony, a verdict may be reached today on the … Continue reading →

A member of the Solar Impulse crew rides an electric bike alongside the solar-powered plane as it lifts off from Moffett Field NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., on May 3, on the first leg of a trip … Continue reading →

Honeybee colonies are dying at a rate of 30 percent a year, according to a new government report. Photo by Flickr Creative Commons/ Cygnus921. Update: 4:30 p.m. ET | A new government report on the decline of honeybee colonies in … Continue reading →

Low Earth Orbit is the region of space within 1,200 miles of the Earth’s surface. It is the most concentrated area for orbital debris. Photo by NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. Update: May 1 | On a January night in … Continue reading →

The sheer amount of debris in low-Earth orbit is tipping space dangerously close to a cascade of hazardous collisions, scientists announced at a four-day international meeting on the subject this week. And there is an “urgent need” to fly satellites … Continue reading →

The artist’s concept depicts Kepler-62e, a super-Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. Photo by NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech. Two Earth-sized planets with lukewarm … Continue reading →

A mantis shrimp peers from its burrow in the Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea. Photo by David Doubilet/ National Geographic/ Getty Images. We’re a little late to the party here, but if you haven’t yet read this comic by … Continue reading →

A gelada baboon in Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. Photo by A. Davey via Flickr. Scientists studying the evolution of speech have long puzzled over why there are no good models in primates. While primates share many traits with humans … Continue reading →

The parachute for the Mars Science Laboratory mission to Mars opened before launch. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech. A newly released series of images snapped by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals that the Curiosity rover’s parachute has been flapping in the thin … Continue reading →